blackwellbrew-blog

[blackwellbrew-blog]

reblogging for the Afternoon folks.

Hey look I finally got around to drawing my Witchsona.

It’s more than a little rushed. I was doing the beginning coloring at around 1:30 and decided I wanted to try and finish it by 2. It’s now 2:20 so…not bad, but it looks like the quick doodle it is.

I was going to draw myself as an adorable fluffy cute little thing but when I put pen to tablet I got this mental image instead.

So that’s what I drew.

I need to make a new art tumblr stat.

Songs I listened to while working on this that seemed significant:

Beautiful Stranger

Faces Like Mine

Boop!

[blackwellbrew-blog]

pibsims replied to your post: Hey look I finally got around to drawi...

Le sigh, that’s a quick sketch. Damn!

I should clarify that "quick sketch" means "I didn't spend time refining this". It still took...eh...2 hours? I think. Maybe more. With so many anatomy mistakes. It's been a while since I've drawn something without a live model.

So, 'quick' is used very loosely. So is 'sketch'. :)

We should be art buddies! And motivate each other to make art! And stuff!

[blackwellbrew-blog]

Hey look I finally got around to drawing my Witchsona.

It's more than a little rushed. I was doing the beginning coloring at around 1:30 and decided I wanted to try and finish it by 2. It's now 2:20 so...not bad, but it looks like the quick doodle it is.

I was going to draw myself as an adorable fluffy cute little thing but when I put pen to tablet I got this mental image instead.

So that's what I drew.

I need to make a new art tumblr stat.

Songs I listened to while working on this that seemed significant:

Beautiful Stranger

Faces Like Mine

Boop!

[blackwellbrew-blog]

like/reblog if you are a witch of any kind (secular or religious of any kind)

especially if you like or post a lot about some of these things:

tarot and spread crafting

sigil craft and casting

blood magic

curses

neurodiversity in witchcraft practice

...

[blackwellbrew-blog]

talk to your cats about ghosts

if you don’t, who will?

[blackwellbrew-blog]

Happy International Women’s Day 2015! ^__^ For equality and women’s rights all over the world.

[blackwellbrew-blog]

shitty horoscopes book vi: after the fall.

a volume that took way too long about life after february, and life after (or during) the blues.

[ read the entire shitty horoscopes zine series here. ]

[blackwellbrew-blog]

Sak Yant or Yantra Tattooing are  believed to give the wearer magic powers associated with healing, luck, strength, and protection against evil.

[blackwellbrew-blog]

[blackwellbrew-blog]

Do you know about Cerebellar Hypoplasia?

If you’ve ever had the absolute pleasure of meeting a cat with CH, you’ll know how quirky and charming they typically are! Teddy, the CEO of The Tiny Tabby, has CH. He is the happiest, sweetest and most loving cat I have ever encountered. He is very lucky that someone with knowledge of his condition rescued him. Knowledge really can save lives! Want to see how a typical CH cat walks? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJQG6V1MOVY Cats with Cerebellar Hypoplasia are special needs cats, and you should learn all about them before adopting. If you adopt ANY animal, you never know what challenges you will face taking care of them. With mild to moderate CH cats, small changes to your home will accommodate a CH cat. CH cats typically do not require tons of extra work, you just need to make sure they can get around your home. Personally, I carpeted my staircase and got a a litter box that was easy to get into. CH cats should never ever ever ever be de-clawed. Cats rely on their claws to catch themselves from falling, and are actually a part of their paws (they are not like human fingernails). While all cats should have this natural part of their body, CH cats need them more than the average cat. Learn more about CH cats here. Adopt a Marmalade plush, 50% of the sale goes to cat related charities <3

[blackwellbrew-blog]

18.05.2014 I learned yesterday that when you see a bee on the ground that isn’t moving, it’s not necessarily dead, it’s probably just dead tired from carrying lots of pollen and needs re-energising. So if you mix a tiny bit of water with some sugar and let it drink it will give it the boost it needs to continue on its way. Bizarrely, this exact thing happened today! I found a knackered bee, mixed up some sugar water, gave it a drink and watched it guzzle and guzzle then suddenly come back to life. It was amazing! Thank you patrick, it was an excellent tip that i’ll never forget and will continue to pass on to others!

[blackwellbrew-blog]

The Princess’s 200+ Followers Giveaway: A Shadowy Rhapsody in Blue (Cat not included)

Without the ongoing support of the tumblr community, I would not have become as confident or engaged in tarot or divination as I am, and so as a thanks for your support I would like to have a giveaway! Tarot was a life-saving hobby for me for the past few months, and as such I’d like to share the gift with one of my most coveted decks over the past few months, as well as some extra goodies. They are all mostly blue. That’s the theme, it’s blue.  

How to Enter: 

To enter, reblog and/or like this post (both count). 

You do not have to be following me. You always can and I appreciate it! But if it’s not your thing, I feel you. I just want to give back to the community. 

Please be over 18 and located in the US, Canada, Central North America, Iceland, the UK or the EU.* 

No giveaway blogs please. 

On March 31st, I will randomly select one winner with a randomizer. You will have 72 hours to accept your prize before i re-roll. 

Please do not tag this as a giveaway - this is not affilliated with Tumblr or any companies that the prizes came from. 

What You Win: 

A new copy of the Silhouettes Tarot: Limited Second Edition with postcards and bag

An Aqua Vitae pendant by local crafter Taylor’s Maid Designs (it glows in the dark)

A hardbound, gilded gold unused Celestial Journal 

Any free reading of your choice by The Princess of Pentacles

Some random goodies that are TBD and will probably BD on the day of sending (and may depend on your customs laws and interests)

Good luck, thank you for all of your ongoing support, and happy reblogging! The divination community on tumblr is a rare, universal and wonderful resource for diviners new and old across the world to learn, share, and feel loved. By making this, I intend to recognize that and I thank each and every one of you who enter for being present!  

*Re: location: This is mostly because it is a big hassle to figure out how to ship things, guarantee things and do customs to regions beyond this. If you can make a case for why your country isn’t very difficult to ship to from the US, go ahead and give it a try and if I concur you’re very welcome to enter.

[blackwellbrew-blog]

unapologetically fat and cute

[blackwellbrew-blog]

"So, I finish watching this documentary (Sexy Baby) and I have rage feminism feels. It isn't FAIR that half naked women bordering on pornography is what sells us things. Look at this American Apparel post.  Women shouldn't BE COMMODITIES. So then I decided that I was going to dress "modestly" and not show my body to anyone but my husband, just in retaliation to the rampant naked women everywhere telling me I need to be stylish, fit, and blonde.

But then I thought, that defeats the purpose. That's still not being ME.

So, I decided to AGGRESSIVELY BE MYSELF. I got my most colorful makeup and went to town on my face. I drew big swirlies and smashed color on my eyes. I did what I thought looked nice and I look like a weirdo with two toned lips (blue on top, purple on bottom) but I don't care.

THIS IS NOT YOUR FACE. 

THIS IS MY FACE, TO DO WITH AS I PLEASE.

I shall decorate it and love it and put it aggressively out into the world. It will bare your judging stares with pride. My body is not yours to dictate, to push into submission, and while it may be surrounded by images different from it is is not worse. It is not less than.

I will be hairy because that makes me comfortable. It is my body. Not your body.

I will turn you on only on my terms. I finally understand, now. I understand the posts that tell you to love your body and to claim it as your own. To wear make up if you want, or not to if you don't. To shave or not shave. To dress in layers or nothing at all.

I have brushed off these posts before because I thought they were false positive affirmations spewed by someone who couldn't see what I looked like, who wouldn't actually believe I was beautiful if they saw me.

But no. The love yourself posts are not fluffy bullshit. It is a rhetoric we must tell ourselves and we must hear if things are ever to change. You, whoever you are, are beautiful."

---------The most important post of my long ramble about this documentary I just watched.

[blackwellbrew-blog]

On Make-Up and Feminism.

Or, "Why my face looks like someone took it upon themselves to throw pigment powder on it with no mind for where it landed."

I watched a documentary today called "Sexy Baby." (available on Netflix) The description from IMdb is:

"An ex adult film star, a 12 year old girl and a 22 year old who yearns for "normal" private parts are chronicled in this thought provoking doc about how porn, social media and pop culture affect women and girls."

This post is going to be a bit of my thoughts on this documentary.

Disclaimer: I watch a lot of documentaries. I love to put on a documentary and listen to it while I paint. Any documentary, really, but I do tend to favor documentaries about sex, feminism, true crime, and cults. I did not have any real strong reasoning for selecting this particular documentary to watch. I thought it might be similar and a good companion piece to All Men Are Pedophiles, which I also watched.

Disclaimer #2: I already considered myself a bit of a feminist going into this, however I was never really...heavily vocal about it. I don't consider myself, or didn't- at the time, a third wave feminist. The feminist I was before watching this documentary was mildly invested in politics enough to care about women controlling the reproductive rights of women, and occasionally spoke up that 'women' should include all women regardless of gender at birth or skin color or faith.

Now, my thoughts, spoilers and rambling ahead:

First, I really enjoyed this documentary and it's choice to profile a twelve year old girl as one of it's main characters. I think that was one of the two moments that affected me the most. The documentary spans over at least a year, long enough for one of the stars to become pregnant, and so we start the documentary with this young lady talking about how media shouldn't control women and how it's important to become the person you want to be regardless of how people think you should dress or act, and then throughout the documentary we can really see this girl become more and more shaped by pop culture and it telling her how certain people should act.

I've always been a "Dress how you want" person, but watching the girl change from cute leggings to short skirts and fishnets didn't make me feel like she was dressing too provocatively for her age, but it did make me ask myself the question "Is this how *she* wants to dress or how she thinks she *should* dress?"

At one point (well, at several, really) the girl loses her facebook privileges for posting revealing photos of herself. The girl's mother, a high profile defense attorney (If I remember right), said Winnie could dress however she liked but said something along the lines of it having to be an informed decision. And she didn't mention it in the way my mother did, of "If you wear a skirt that short you will get raped." (with the implication of it being my fault due to my clothing choices) but more of "You need to be aware of the pressures of the world asking you to be a certain way, and while the people who will judge your decision are wrong you need to be prepared to handle it."

One of the other characters, as mentioned in the summary, is a woman who feels her vagina doesn't look normal because she has a longer outer labia. The woman decides to have a labioplasty and visits a male physician who appears to be unmarried and whose practice deals exclusively with aesthetic vaginal surgery.

This doctor pissed me off so, so much. He told her that her labia were a 7 and 8 out of 10 where 10 is the worst your labia can look. He definitely talked her into it and at one point said something along the lines of that he knew she was doing it for the right reasons but had to get some background questions out of the way as a formality.

At one point in the documentary the "Doctor" (his credentials were not verified in the film, so..."doctor") read testimonials about his surgeries and mentioned it was like curing cancer. He nodded and I swear he gives off this vibe like he thinks he is Holy for making vaginas pleasing to the eye.

This just really highlighted for me how controlled by men we as women are. You want to get a labioplasty to feel better about yourself? Go to the male doctor, who only does vaginas, who will tell you how bad your labia look and how you don't need a second opinion on it, to cut up your vagina. On one hand, I am all for doing what you need to do to feel comfortable about the skin you're in. Pierce it, ink it, change it to make you feel good. Not my place to say you shouldn't.

But when vaginas are seen as a commodity to men, and women with vaginas are getting these surgeries to make their vaginas more sexually appealing to their partners... I just.. Don't feel like the surgeon should also be a presumably heterosexual man. Sure, he can have his own preferences for what he likes in a vagina, but to be telling women with vaginas that theirs is wrong and needs to be fixed...

I don't why I feel like a female doctor would have been better. I just feel like, with the male doctor, it's been made so clear that men run the media and are in control of pop culture when it comes to women's bodies, like the surgeon being a man just makes me want to rip my hair out. It just made me angry and I'm not sure I can articulate my anger at him properly.

Finally, another moment I'd like to talk briefly about is the ex porn star. She said something that really hit me. She touched on a lot of things, how porn is meant to look pleasing and doesn't actually feel good (and as a former sex worker I totally understand this!) but that to help her get through it she maintained control the whole time. She was in control of HER body. If she was going to turn you on, it was going to be on HER terms.

So, I finish watching this documentary and I have rage feminism feels. It isn't FAIR that half naked women bordering on pornography is what sells us things. Look at this American Apparel post.  Women shouldn't BE COMMODITIES.  So then I decided that I was going to dress "modestly" and not show my body to anyone but my husband, just in retaliation to the rampant naked women everywhere telling me I need to be stylish, fit, and blonde.

But then I thought, that defeats the purpose. That's still not being ME.

So, I decided to AGGRESSIVELY BE MYSELF. I got my most colorful makeup and went to town on my face. I drew big swirlies and smashed color on my eyes. I did what I thought looked nice and I look like a weirdo with two toned lips (blue on top, purple on bottom) but I don't care.

THIS IS NOT YOUR FACE. THIS IS MY FACE, TO DO WITH AS I PLEASE.

I shall decorate it and love it and put it aggressively out into the world. It will bare your judging stares with pride. My body is not yours to dictate, to push into submission, and while it may be surrounded by images different from it is is not worse. It is not less than.

I will be hairy because that makes me comfortable. It is my body. Not your body.

I will turn you on only on my terms. 

I finally understand, now. I understand the posts that tell you to love your body and to claim it as your own. To wear make up if you want, or not to if you don't. To shave or not shave. To dress in layers or nothing at all.

I have brushed off these posts before because I thought they were false positive affirmations spewed by someone who couldn't see what I looked like, who wouldn't actually believe I was beautiful if they saw me.

But no. The love yourself posts are not fluffy bullshit. It is a rhetoric we must tell ourselves and we must hear if things are ever to change. You, whoever you are, are beautiful.

I feel so invorgated. I get it now. I get it. This is important.

I highly recommend the documentary if the subject matter won't trigger you. At one point they show the labioplasty and while not in a lot of detail you still do see the removed labia and there is talk of the amount they bleed when removed.

[blackwellbrew-blog]

Note to self: Do the thing after the makeup thing.

it’s the most wonderful time of the year! how have you, and your witchsona, changed this past year? did you learn new kind of magic, pick up a new familiar, switch your elemental power?  draw yours and tag with ‘witchsona’ and we’ll reblog it here!! happy witch week ~ ◦ ✧ ☆

[blackwellbrew-blog]